Relatively Sports Ep. 44: Football is Back!
Relatively Sports Ep. 44: Football is Back!
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Kevin Coke and what he wore.
00:12 [MUSIC]
00:15 >> And man, just keep doing what you're doing because you have a message.
00:19 [MUSIC]
00:29 >> I think one of the greatest college running backs ever, obviously,
00:33 in the history of West Virginia.
00:34 But also, if you look at the stats, what he did in college football.
00:37 [MUSIC]
00:41 >> What's going on?
00:42 What's going on?
00:43 It's always fun to come back to my show,
00:45 Repetitively Sports with Eugene Napoleon.
00:48 With such, how would I say this?
00:51 A well-rounded, well-versed person like Skylar Callahan, the man,
00:56 the myth, and the legend.
00:58 How are you, my guy?
00:59 >> Man, stop it.
01:00 You're making me blush.
01:01 >> [LAUGH]
01:02 >> You can't see it, but you're making me blush, man.
01:04 Yeah, I'm doing great, man.
01:05 I'm doing blessed.
01:06 Glad to be back on with you.
01:07 It's always a fun time.
01:09 You and I, we've got a lot of stuff cooking up for this football season.
01:12 So it's gonna be a lot of fun.
01:14 >> Absolutely.
01:15 And speaking of which, that's a great segue.
01:17 That's a great segue.
01:18 Speaking of which, I wanna get your feelings on this, man.
01:21 Okay.
01:22 I've been talking to a few of my former teammates, and it's interesting.
01:26 We're kinda looking through the West Virginia 2023 football schedule.
01:32 Obviously, in a few weeks, we'll be taking the field against Penn State.
01:38 Yeah, and it's just interesting.
01:42 I'm a little bit cautious when I say I'm not sure.
01:48 Somebody had asked me this question.
01:50 I had to be brutally honest the other day.
01:52 They said, well, what do you think?
01:54 Eugene, what do you think?
01:56 Do West Virginia have a chance at Penn State?
01:59 And my thing was, for obvious reasons,
02:03 there's so many things that has to go right for our Mountaineers
02:07 to be able to go down there and do what they need to do with the seventh.
02:11 I think, what is Penn State, ranked seventh, eighth in the country somewhere in there?
02:14 >> Yeah, something like that, yeah.
02:16 >> So, yeah, you can't go down there and start slow offensively or defensively
02:21 or in special teams.
02:22 You almost have to be hitting on all cylinders, right,
02:25 in all three phases of the game that early in the season,
02:28 first game out against an opponent such as Penn State.
02:32 We know Penn State's going to be well-coached.
02:34 They always are, right?
02:37 I also said we're going to have to manage our mistakes, our miscues.
02:42 First game of the season, under the bright lights like that,
02:46 national televised game, a night game, look, yeah.
02:51 I'm hoping that we come out and we're ready for primetime.
03:00 What are your thoughts?
03:02 >> It's crazy.
03:03 I was actually just trying to look it up, and I should have done it beforehand.
03:07 But it's been quite a while, I believe,
03:11 since West Virginia has won on the road against the top-ten team.
03:15 And it's a tough challenge.
03:20 I mean, when you look at Penn State, they bring back a lot of talent.
03:23 Now, offensively, they're having a new quarterback in there.
03:26 We all expect that to be Drew Adler,
03:28 but they've got some really good running backs, their defense is stout.
03:31 Like this is a legitimate team that can compete for a Big Ten championship
03:35 and then some.
03:36 So for West Virginia to just even have a chance in this game,
03:40 they're going to have to play perfect,
03:42 and they're also going to have to have some things go their way.
03:45 They're going to have to have the ball bounce their way.
03:47 They're going to have to play clean football,
03:49 they're going to have to have some good procedure penalties.
03:51 They can't have any of that type of stuff.
03:53 Penn State is already good enough.
03:56 They don't need the help, right?
03:58 West Virginia, when you look at what they bring back,
04:02 I mean, they lose their top four receivers,
04:04 they're having a new starting quarterback.
04:06 The offensive line comes back together.
04:09 But when you look at the defensive side,
04:12 there's a lot of new faces on that side, too.
04:15 Secondaries, very, I wouldn't say inexperienced,
04:18 because they've got some transfers,
04:20 but inexperienced at West Virginia.
04:23 Defensive line, same thing.
04:24 You lose your top three guys there,
04:26 you have some thin numbers at linebacker.
04:29 There's a lot to worry about.
04:30 So they're going to need a little bit of luck to even have a chance to win this game.
04:35 Penn State is legitimately good,
04:38 and I think when you look at most sports books, Gene,
04:42 like Penn State's favored by 20 points or 21 points.
04:45 Yeah, I've been seeing that, yeah.
04:47 And it's hard for me to think that they can make it any closer,
04:53 but I think for them the game plan is going to be they're going to have to run the ball
04:59 extremely well and shorten this game up,
05:01 because you can't get in the back and forth with Penn State.
05:05 And I'm not saying Penn State is a team that's going to put up 40
05:08 or 50 points a game this year.
05:10 I don't know that their offense is engineered to do that either.
05:12 But when you put these two rosters side by side and you look at the depth of them,
05:18 it's quite the disparity.
05:20 So I think you've got to shrink this game, you've got to play clean,
05:23 you've got to run the football, get off the field.
05:26 And you know what, if we look at what Penn State has done early in the season
05:33 in the last, say, five to seven years, and you look at their first home games,
05:38 it's not like they're playing one.
05:41 When they're playing decent teams, they're not playing well.
05:45 And for the most part, they're playing teams that are where their 40
05:49 or 50-point favorites are.
05:51 So I think there's a chance.
05:53 I can't remember what year it was, but they played Appalachian State,
05:57 speaking of which.
05:58 Yeah, absolutely.
05:59 And App State almost beat them.
06:01 And I think it was their first or second game of the year,
06:03 it was their first home game.
06:04 So there's a chance where Penn State looks at West Virginia
06:07 and sees the lack of talent they have coming back and just overlooks them.
06:11 So I think there can be a little bit of that.
06:14 But, again, you're going to have to have a lot to go right for West Virginia
06:17 to just have a chance.
06:20 It's scary to think about when I'm seeing just, you know, Penn State,
06:26 then Duquesne, then Pitt.
06:30 When I'm seeing that lineup, I'm scared only from the standpoint of you got
06:35 Duquesne sandwiched in the middle of two really decent games, right?
06:40 Yep.
06:41 At the end of that, as you stated, Penn State is the type of team,
06:47 and they always have been, even my years at WVU,
06:50 they capitalize well off of their opponents' mistakes.
06:55 And that's because they've always been very well coached.
06:59 So if you shorten the game and you make it like you suggested,
07:04 where we run the football, we shorten this game,
07:07 there's a chance that anything can happen at that point.
07:11 But if you let them come in, control the clock, you have a few three-and-outs,
07:18 you give them the ball by way of a fumble or a pick,
07:24 you give them a big play here or there on special teams,
07:28 this thing can get out of control quite quickly.
07:31 And I'm hoping that that's not the case because right now,
07:36 with everything being on the line, what I mean by that is,
07:42 this year, West Virginia has to prove itself competitive in big games.
07:50 If you're not going to win them, you've got to be competitive.
07:53 No, you can't go to Penn State and lose by 30 points.
07:58 No.
08:01 You've got to be competitive. It can't happen.
08:03 So that was my thought.
08:06 I'm looking at the schedule. It's a tough schedule.
08:11 It is.
08:12 It's a tough schedule.
08:14 There's really no cupcakes in there.
08:16 And I know Kansas, they're usually the team that everyone looks at and says,
08:23 "Oh, that's an easy win."
08:24 Well, we found out last year that that's no longer the case.
08:27 Lance Leipold turned that thing around.
08:29 That's right.
08:31 Actually, Kansas isn't on the schedule this year,
08:35 as long as I'm remembering correctly.
08:38 All this has been crazy the last few weeks with all these teams coming in
08:42 and out and stuff like that.
08:43 I think Kansas is not.
08:45 I don't think they're on the schedule.
08:47 But even then, you still have these newcomers coming to BYU, Central Florida,
08:50 Cincinnati, Houston.
08:52 Absolutely.
08:53 And some of those teams, I think, matter of fact,
08:56 three of the four teams are really going to face trouble with depth as the
09:00 season moves along.
09:01 But I think BYU is going to be one that may be able to sustain that a little
09:04 bit because they've always been a team that has built through the trenches
09:07 and they've recruited big, stayed big.
09:10 But you look at those teams and you're thinking, "Okay,
09:13 well maybe there's a couple easy wins."
09:15 I don't know.
09:16 I still think those teams still have the foundation, at least,
09:21 to be a team that can pester you a little bit.
09:24 You look at Cincinnati, I mean, I know they've lost a ton since they went to
09:28 the College Football Playoff, but there's still some talented players there.
09:32 You look at Houston, they lost a ton from last season,
09:35 but they're always going to put together a really good offense.
09:38 You look at UCF, that's probably the best of the four right now in terms of
09:43 talent.
09:44 I mean, it's not an easy schedule at all.
09:46 You've got to come out of those first three games two and one.
09:51 There is no way it can go anywhere else.
09:54 If you come out one and two and that only wins against Duquesne,
09:58 I'm telling you, it ran out.
10:00 That's a very, very dangerous spot for Neil Brown to be in.
10:05 I agree.
10:06 Well, I think that's the indication of you definitely won't be trending
10:09 in the right direction.
10:11 So, yeah.
10:13 And that was my major concern.
10:15 I'm thinking you've got to come out of the gates two and one, realistically.
10:20 You know, this year I'm going to be a lot more realistic than I have been.
10:25 Last year humbled you a little bit, maybe?
10:28 It did.
10:29 Maybe the last four years humbled you a little bit.
10:32 They have.
10:34 Yeah.
10:35 So, I'm going to be a lot more realistic than I have been over the last three
10:39 to four seasons.
10:40 You know, thank you, Coach Brown, for that.
10:43 I'm not happy with it.
10:45 I'm not happy with, you know, but I'm always going to side on, you know,
10:51 listen, I wore that uniform.
10:53 I know what it's like to be a player in that locker room,
10:57 and you do not want to go out and not perform well in front of our great fans
11:04 to support our university, Morgantown, in the state of West Virginia.
11:10 No, that's not on any player's mind.
11:12 In any sport, when you decide to come to WVU.
11:15 So, let me go out and stand on that, right?
11:18 But here's the realistic point of that schedule, as we're talking about.
11:24 This is a real interesting schedule, and it just happens to fall into a real
11:28 interesting time period for Neil Brown in this particular coaching staff
11:32 in this year.
11:34 So, there's a lot that's going to have to happen,
11:37 and I'm hoping and praying that it does happen.
11:40 There's no one that would be happier than I would be.
11:42 I would probably run around the state of New Jersey if we pull off a win at
11:46 Penn State.
11:47 Trust me, the entire state.
11:50 You know what I mean?
11:53 Yeah, so it's going to be interesting.
11:54 I'm looking forward to it.
11:56 Listen, this is what big-time football is all about.
11:58 I always say it.
12:00 You know, you've got to be ready for prime time.
12:02 You come to WVU with these type of programs,
12:05 this is why you come to West Virginia, to play this type of schedule.
12:08 And actually, I didn't even think about it.
12:10 I knew in the back of my head, I just didn't really realize it.
12:13 Me and Chris were talking the other day, and we're like, "Oh, man.
12:18 They start the season with three prime time games."
12:21 Well, I don't know if you call Duquesne a prime time game,
12:24 but it's played at night.
12:26 So, they have three night games to start the season.
12:28 So, that's something that hasn't been a thing around here during the
12:33 Neil Brown era.
12:34 It took them forever to finally get into a night games time slot.
12:37 So, that will be a little bit different.
12:40 But, yeah, I mean, you've got to come out two and one.
12:42 And anything worse than that,
12:44 you're setting yourself up for a really long season.
12:47 And I don't know if you guys that are watching this have seen my video
12:54 talking about the first scrimmage.
12:57 Go ahead and check that out.
12:58 Quick plug right now.
13:00 My plug game is strong now, Jean.
13:02 But go on to Mountaineers Now on YouTube, where you found this,
13:06 and check out Between the Ears and something about the first scrimmage.
13:11 Look, there's a lot of things that Neil Brown said in his press conference,
13:16 and I'm a little concerned right now.
13:18 So, if you want to see my concerns, go check out that video.
13:22 I'll lay it out in full detail.
13:24 It's about a 20-minute long thing.
13:25 So, there you go.
13:26 Wow.
13:27 There you go.
13:28 No, that's a nice plug.
13:29 I appreciate that.
13:30 That's what's up.
13:31 [Laughter]
13:33 You know, I want to bring this up because in the spirit of college sports,
13:37 in the spirit of college football and where we are,
13:42 I'm not sure if the word "concern" would be the correct word.
13:48 But I'll say it for the lack of description for this particular topic.
13:52 Where are we in college football right now with all of the switching
13:58 and conferences and the teams and the money and all of this stuff?
14:02 Where are we in college football, Skylar?
14:04 I don't remember a time where I thought, "Man, I'm not sure if I'm excited."
14:12 Yeah.
14:13 You know what I mean?
14:15 I'm just surprised because it's seemingly every other week there's a new
14:19 addition or a new subtraction from one conference to the next.
14:23 Where are we?
14:24 What's going on, man?
14:25 I don't even know if I have the perfect word to describe it,
14:30 and it's probably not a word that I should say on the camera here.
14:34 But it's crazy.
14:37 And there's a lot of people I feel like that probably didn't understand
14:45 West Virginia's place in the Big 12 for the last decade, right?
14:50 How really West Virginia was the only Power 5 school that was well out of its
14:56 geographical realm.
14:58 Like they were traveling to a different time zone every time they played a
15:02 road game.
15:03 No one else in the country faced that.
15:07 And I think now you're going to see a lot of fan bases,
15:11 whether it be Oregon and Washington with the Big 10 and UCLA and USC in the
15:16 mix there, too.
15:18 Now you're adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah in the Big 12,
15:22 and all of those teams are going to have to come eastward to Morgantown,
15:26 Cincinnati, and Orlando.
15:28 And it's just a mess.
15:31 And it's only going to continue to get more chaotic because the ACC,
15:35 as we know it, is only going to be around for -- I mean, who knows?
15:40 It may be changed by the end of this episode as quickly as things change.
15:44 Clemson, Miami, those schools, North Carolina,
15:48 they don't want to be in the ACC with that current TV deal that they have.
15:53 It's locked in 2036.
15:55 They're not getting anywhere near the money that the Big 12 and the Big 10
15:59 are getting.
16:00 So they're going to want out unless the ACC somehow reconstructs their deal.
16:05 And it's just -- I really hate it, Gene, and really more so now just because
16:12 when West Virginia was in the Big 12 and was really the only outlier in terms
16:18 of the regionality thing, there was still some maybe hope that maybe some
16:24 things could get realigned and West Virginia just falls back into the ACC --
16:28 or back into a conference like the ACC where they have those regional rivalries
16:33 or something like that.
16:34 Or maybe these conferences don't go to 18 and 20-team leagues
16:39 and they go strictly regional.
16:42 It's going the complete opposite of that.
16:44 And I really think that when we get two to three years into this,
16:48 so this is all supposed to start next year in '24, by '26, '27, '28,
16:53 you're going to see the interest in college football just take a big decline.
16:57 I really do because you're not going to have those rivalry games.
17:01 All you're talking about is just getting this into an NFL format where you have
17:05 each conference and each division has a game going on in each time slot.
17:11 Who gives a hell?
17:12 Like it doesn't matter.
17:14 This is all driven for money.
17:17 But what's interesting and ironic, Gene, is like at the end of the day,
17:20 rivalries are what drives the dollars.
17:24 When you have Oregon playing Iowa at noon, do you think anybody out in Eugene
17:31 is really going to care about that game?
17:33 No.
17:34 And that's the point.
17:36 Do you think that -- and you know this for a fact.
17:39 Do you think that USC fans are looking forward to that trip to Piscataway?
17:46 No.
17:48 No one wants to go to Piscataway.
17:50 You don't even want to go to Piscataway.
17:53 Thank you.
17:54 So that's the point.
17:57 There's no interest in if you take the regionality out of this
18:00 and you take the rivalries out of this, you're killing college football
18:04 and college basketball.
18:06 Same thing.
18:07 And that's the thing that -- yeah, that's a major concern
18:11 because I was reading an article not too long ago,
18:13 and that's exactly how you just prefaced that.
18:16 That's exactly how it was stated in the article.
18:18 I don't even care about -- I think it was somebody --
18:21 I don't even care about college football or something like that.
18:23 And I'm reading it, and it's sad because to every point that you just made
18:28 was what was in that article about what happened to the rivalries, right?
18:34 When you start messing around with the rivalries,
18:36 and especially when you have fans, historic fans, who go back, you know,
18:41 15, 20, 30, 40 years of college football,
18:46 they don't care about West Virginia playing BYU.
18:51 Yeah.
18:53 It just doesn't -- you know, it doesn't make sense,
18:56 and this is not a knock against BYU.
18:59 It's just that there is no history there.
19:02 There is no realistic history where you can say that game is going to mean something.
19:10 It's just not.
19:12 Look at all the big-time rivalries in college football
19:15 that are either going to be dead for a long time
19:18 or we don't know what the future of it looks like.
19:21 The backyard brawl, the Black Diamond trophy,
19:24 the Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State,
19:27 which is a very underrated rivalry, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in bedlam.
19:31 I mean, there's just four right there, and there's a ton more
19:35 that are not going to be able to be played because of this BS of Conferentria Line.
19:41 What I get, and I understand, I always say this,
19:44 everything turns out to be about the bottom line.
19:48 But like you said, organic rivalries is what brings in --
19:54 it generates more of the revenue because you want to see that particular rivalry, right?
20:02 The excitement for me this year just so happens to be Penn State and Pitt on the schedule.
20:10 You mean to tell me you're not excited about Central Florida or Arizona State maybe in a year?
20:18 You ready for this?
20:21 No.
20:22 Exactly.
20:23 No.
20:24 I mean, it's sad to say I love college football, but that does not excite me at all.
20:31 It doesn't.
20:32 I mean, as fun as the week will be and maybe the postgame of West Virginia-Houston
20:40 because of all the ties with Dana and some of the guys that have transferred to Houston.
20:45 Now that I'm excited about.
20:47 Yeah, but like after that, no one cares.
20:49 It's West Virginia-Houston.
20:51 And when basketball season rolls around, no one cares about West Virginia versus Houston.
20:55 And it's like I just don't like it.
20:59 And the one thing that I've heard repeatedly from fans, and I've kind of felt this way too,
21:05 like when you go and look at West Virginia versus Pitt last year and the West Virginia-Virginia Tech games
21:15 the last two years, you felt the meaning behind that game, even though it was a non-conference game.
21:22 You felt it.
21:24 Even as a reporter, as fans have told me, they felt more excitement and disappointment in those wins
21:32 and losses versus Pitt and Virginia Tech since West Virginia has moved to the Big 12 in those last two years
21:40 than they felt in any game over the last decade in the Big 12.
21:46 What does that tell you?
21:48 There's a reason for it.
21:50 Like I said, organically and historically, those games, those rivalries, they hold up through the test of time.
22:01 When you talk about the backyard brawl, listen, we can play Penn State and Keggers at Keggers, right?
22:13 Okay, you can play Pitt in somebody's backyard.
22:18 You're going to get the same fanfare as if you're playing for a national championship.
22:22 Why?
22:23 Simply because it happens to be Penn State and Pitt, and it means something.
22:28 Those rivalries against Virginia Tech and even, check this out, even Syracuse,
22:35 those games back in the day meant something.
22:39 Can't throw Rutgers in there because it meant nothing.
22:44 What I'm saying is when you get away from that, it becomes problematic, and I get it.
22:49 Yeah, it's all about the almighty dollar.
22:51 I understand all of that, the conference realignments and all this other shaking up and down.
22:55 I get it.
22:57 But if someone is sitting there thinking that by tearing away the rivalry games, you're going to make more money,
23:05 now, network-wise, the suits are not thinking about rivalries.
23:12 They're thinking about power conferences.
23:16 They're thinking if you get the best teams together in these power conferences,
23:21 that's going to create more revenue and more interest, which I think is the complete opposite,
23:26 because if you have no organic rivalries within those power conferences, what does it matter?
23:32 People are simply may not tune in because they don't care about those particular universities that don't have any history playing against each other.
23:40 Exactly. That's a great point.
23:43 When West Virginia was in the Big East, if West Virginia was on a bye week, I know when I was a kid,
23:50 I would still kind of tune in to the Pitt game and see what's going on in that game because I would have wanted Pitt to lose.
23:58 I would have wanted Virginia Tech to lose, wanted Syracuse to lose, so on and so forth.
24:03 When you're talking about the Big 12, I can almost bet – now, maybe there's a few people out there a little bit different,
24:10 but I can always guarantee you the overwhelming majority of West Virginia fans don't give a rat's you know what about what Oklahoma State does on their bye week while West Virginia is on the bye week,
24:21 or what Houston does, or Colorado, or Arizona State, or Arizona, or Utah for that matter.
24:27 You are losing viewers just because of not just the games against each other.
24:36 You're talking about when your team's game over, they're looking at other games to watch.
24:43 They want to see what those rivalries are doing, but over time, if this thing goes on 8, 10, 12 years, the further that game goes away,
24:53 the less that hate will be there and that sting will be there.
24:58 When you walked into, let's just say Pittsburgh, and you walked into a grocery store in Pittsburgh and you're a West Virginia fan on it,
25:05 and you just beat Pitt last week, you're going to walk into that grocery store all happy with that flying WB on your cap,
25:11 feeling all nice and proud and feel all that attention towards you.
25:16 You walk in there now, you can maybe do that once a year, and you might get that, but outside of that, there's no clashing.
25:27 When you're doing that for not only the game itself, but you're competing against your rival for a conference championship, there is no path for that anymore.
25:37 No. I mean, well, you look at it this way.
25:40 I don't know how people are going to feel, God willing, when we beat the snot out of Houston.
25:48 I'm not sure how that's going. You know what I mean?
25:51 My local story, now check this out. Now, it's different.
25:55 Again, if we beat Penn State, and I'm in the state of New Jersey, obviously, it's where I live, and I walk around here, there's a lot of Penn State fans where I live.
26:05 Believe it or not, there's some Pitt fans, right? But we win either one or both those games.
26:11 I win my West Virginia stuff probably no matter where I go. It don't really matter, but I'm just saying.
26:16 There's a little bit extra pep in my step.
26:20 Yeah.
26:22 Hold on.
26:26 You beat Cincinnati.
26:30 It's not the same path. You know what I'm saying?
26:34 Because it doesn't make any logical sense.
26:38 There's no natural organic ties to those type of games.
26:42 So I'm hoping, man, I'm hoping we get it right.
26:46 Everything can't be about the almighty freaking dollar.
26:50 Somewhere down the line, there has to be some semblance of a rivalry means more than the almighty dollar.
26:58 And if you do it right, and you bring back those organic rivalries, you might make more of the almighty dollar.
27:06 Yeah, I think we'll see some sort of a blend.
27:10 I don't know that we'll ever go back completely to the old Power Five, and that's what it is.
27:17 Just because you get this little taste of the big dollar, and you're never going to want to go back.
27:23 But I think, like I said, over time, next eight, ten years, the TV people, as you call them, the suits, they start to see the decline.
27:33 They're going to realize they're going to have to make a change.
27:36 And I think they're going to have to go back to where it's a little bit of regionality, but you're still keeping these big conferences.
27:43 So we might still see three conferences, but it may make more sense with those three conferences in that,
27:50 "Okay, you know what? West Virginia is in a conference with essentially what is the entire ACC, and maybe a couple of what is now Big Ten schools.
27:59 And maybe the Big Ten and the Big Twelve have a little bit of a thing, and the Big Twelve and what was the old Pac-12 have their own little thing."
28:07 I mean, you got the SEC there, too.
28:10 So I think you'll end up seeing some sort of shift where it's regionality and super conferences together.
28:19 Right now, they're going in the complete opposite direction from regionality and just going towards super conferences.
28:26 That's not the way to do it.
28:28 Right. No, I agree. I agree.
28:30 Let me ask you this.
28:32 How are you? Have you caught up on some of your Netflix shows and series?
28:38 Yeah, man. During the offseason, I had a lot of time on my hands.
28:43 Now, recently, not so much, but I was able to catch up on the Johnny Manziel thing, which I think we're about to talk about.
28:50 Absolutely. Let me tell you something.
28:52 Somebody had told me about that, a good friend of mine.
28:56 Shout-outs to Ryan. He told me about Johnny Football that was on Netflix.
29:01 And I finally had a chance. My wife and I actually sat down and we watched it the other night.
29:05 We watched it on the same day and didn't even know.
29:08 Yeah, that's right. That's right.
29:10 Let me tell you something that's so interesting.
29:12 So I'm looking at that, and it gave me a totally different perspective on Johnny Manziel and some of the things that he had to go through,
29:23 and especially being diagnosed bipolar, with the bipolar disorder.
29:28 So I'm looking at this thing, and now I get a clear understanding with him battling with that.
29:39 I can see it a little bit clearer now through his lens.
29:43 Yep.
29:44 And the erratic behavior and just the up and downs and the depression and all of that.
29:51 The stuff that this young man had to battle through, now it's crystal clear as to why some of that stuff was happening.
30:04 And it just makes me feel a little bit differently about him, his career, both collegiate and pro,
30:14 and the everyday battles that he has to fight that a lot of people take for granted.
30:21 Absolutely.
30:23 You know, it's interesting.
30:25 It completely changed my perception of him, because when he was in college and his freshman year, the year he won the Heisman,
30:36 I didn't really get that Johnny Manziel vibe that we all kind of grew accustomed to during his Heisman season.
30:45 I didn't really get that.
30:46 It was after the Heisman, which they really noted well in that documentary.
30:50 It seemed like once he won the Heisman, things kind of just started to get out of control.
30:55 And as we talked about on the phone, I think when you have somebody that is -- and I don't want to call those that are bipolar fragile,
31:07 because I think that's a bit of a slight.
31:10 But when you talk about people that maybe are more sensitive and have drastic mood swings, you have to almost handle them with thin hands at times.
31:22 Right. And you have to be careful how much responsibility you give them before you give them too much and they break down,
31:30 they're not able to handle it.
31:32 And I think when you have a guy like that and Johnny Manziel, when he wins the Heisman as a freshman,
31:39 I mean, that's never been done before until him.
31:44 And that's a tough thing for -- that's a lot of responsibility.
31:48 That's a lot of popularity.
31:50 That's a lot of expectations moving forward.
31:54 That's a lot of cash.
31:55 That's a lot of opportunities.
31:57 That's a lot of fame.
31:59 That's a lot of everything.
32:01 That can be very overwhelming for somebody with that disorder.
32:06 And when you don't take that into account, you just see what you see on the news and on TV and on social media, you get this bad perception of them.
32:14 You think that this kid's just out of his -- he's just a headcase and he's just making all these dumb decisions.
32:19 Why is he doing this?
32:20 Why is he doing that?
32:21 Is he trying to ruin his life?
32:22 Is he trying to ruin his career?
32:24 Right.
32:25 And when you finally kind of understand what he was going through, you really feel for him.
32:31 Absolutely.
32:32 Because, man, like if someone would have just been able to help him through those tough times -- and it's not to say that his parents didn't try.
32:41 It's not to say his friends didn't try.
32:44 But I feel like more so as a society and maybe the people at Texas A&M could have done a little bit more to put him in a better situation mentally than what he was in.
32:56 No doubt about it.
32:57 Well, I also think, too, once again, it's about the almighty dollar.
33:03 When they broke down in that documentary the amount of money that Texas A&M made during their run there --
33:10 Oh, it was insane.
33:12 It was insane.
33:13 When they talked about how much money, if there was an NIL deal in place when he was at -- you're talking 30-some odd million, I think it was $35-$38 million.
33:25 He would have generated to himself just based off of the accolades and based off of the news and the hype and all of that.
33:33 So I get it when you have someone that's moving the needle that broadly and you got all the money coming in, all you care about is keeping that someone on the field.
33:50 It doesn't matter what he's going through.
33:52 Keep him on the field.
33:54 So it wasn't so much -- and it could have been a lack of education on the staff of Oklahoma State collectively, collectively, not just the coaching staff but the university as a whole.
34:11 Because if someone is making those type of rash and drastic decisions, something is wrong.
34:20 Let's go figure out what's going on.
34:25 You know that this person at that point, the perception is he loves what he's doing, and if you're doing something opposite of that that's going to keep you away from "what you love," you got to ask the questions like what's really going on?
34:41 You instantaneously want to at least get to the bottom line of trying to help to figure out and then let's -- if we figure it out, let's from a community standpoint come together and try to cover this young person.
34:56 I mean, that's just my mindset.
35:00 I'm not about -- you're making money off of someone or a group of people and you can almost see the pain in their eyes.
35:11 Or better yet, the analogy is you can see the pain through their smile.
35:15 >> Yeah.
35:17 >> If that's the case, you got to do something different.
35:20 My wife and I, we're going -- we have an event coming up that actually deals with mental health.
35:25 In another week we're doing this event.
35:30 And I'm looking forward to it for that same very reason, because these are young adults and middle-aged adults that we'll be speaking with and speaking to and trying to give them some motivation and some tools to help them navigate their day-to-day.
35:43 That's what makes me feel bad about the Johnny football piece.
35:48 >> Thinking about and praying for this young man, how he has to navigate his day-to-day.
35:54 Forget football, forget all that stuff, forget the hype, forget how he has to manage his day-to-day.
36:01 That's what I pray for for this young man and his family.
36:04 >> Yeah.
36:06 I mean, I think really the education piece, that's just it.
36:09 Like that's the biggest part of it.
36:11 I think a lot of people just don't get.
36:14 I think a lot of people just don't get that.
36:18 And I think those that aren't diagnosed with bipolar or mental health issues, they just look at people that have those issues and say, oh, well, they're just weak.
36:28 Or they're crazy or whatever.
36:31 It's that to me, if you have that kind of perception of people that have those types of disorders, you're just uneducated is what it is.
36:40 And I think that's what we have to do.
36:44 I think we have to be educated on that specific topic.
36:47 And I think what we have to do is understand, like, when people have these things, you have to give them more help than what you think.
36:56 You have to surround them with all the help and all the comfort and all the things that they need to be right.
37:02 It's not that they're weak.
37:04 It's not that they're fragile.
37:06 They have to do what is necessary, whether that's to take medication or to go to therapy to get better.
37:13 That doesn't mean they're soft.
37:15 That means they're doing what they're supposed to do to be mentally stable.
37:19 And they should do that.
37:21 So folks that look at Johnny Manziel still the way they viewed him before, I feel sorry for them.
37:31 >> Absolutely.
37:32 No, I agree 100%.
37:33 And hopefully I'll end on this note with this.
37:36 Let me tell you something.
37:39 I give him a lot of credit, his family a lot of credit.
37:43 You have to be strong enough to say I need help.
37:48 >> Yes.
37:49 >> To say I'll take my medication.
37:51 You have to be strong enough.
37:53 There's no weakness about realizing that there's something wrong and you need help.
37:57 That is not weak.
37:59 That's actually strength to say I can't do this by myself without help.
38:04 I need help.
38:06 There's nothing wrong with that at all.
38:08 >> No.
38:09 Not at all.
38:10 I agree.
38:11 My wife, she's a mental health therapist.
38:13 So I hear and I don't get to see these things, but I hear all these stories about all these things that these kids go through.
38:21 And it's tough.
38:24 I don't know how she does it.
38:26 I don't know how people in that career field deal with it.
38:31 It's a tough thing that she has to deal with.
38:34 And the best thing you can do is just be there for them.
38:39 You know, there's really not much that the normal person can do other than to help get them that help that they need and to not put them down.
38:50 You have to be there for them, support them, love them.
38:52 And like you said, going and getting that help, that's -- that says more about you than sitting there and just thinking everything's going to get better.
39:03 >> Absolutely.
39:04 Nah, man, absolutely.
39:06 Listen, my brother, as always, I appreciate you.
39:10 It's always a good time when we get together.
39:13 We always, you know, we always go through these different topics.
39:17 It's awesome, dude.
39:18 It really is.
39:19 >> Yeah, absolutely, man.
39:20 I appreciate you.
39:21 Thank you for having me on your show.
39:23 So it's a lot of fun.
39:25 You'll be on my show a few times this fall.
39:28 >> Absolutely.
39:29 Listen, man, I'll talk to you soon.
39:31 Get my best to the family.
39:33 >> Will do.
39:34 You too, man.
39:35 >> All right.
39:36 Talk to you soon.
39:37 I'm Eugene Napoleon.
39:38 This is "Revatively Sports."
39:40 Later.